Ever since I was young I have said that I wanted to see the place where my ancestor's lived. I never cared if it was a castle or if it was a broken down shack in the woods. What I cared about was that feeling I get when I am able to stand somewhere that one of my ancestor's did many years ago. I spent the past four years researching where in England my ancestors lived with the hope that one day I will be able to go there and experience this feeling. Like many people, COVID had other plans. Its been a year since I initially was planning to take that trip and it seems like it might be at least one more before it can happen. In the mean time I have been revising my route and furthering my research.
One of the first things that I do when I get an address for where one of my ancestor's lived, is search for it on Google Maps. Depending on where you are researching, the area may have changed so much that it is almost unrecognizable when compared to when your ancestor lived. For example,
Angel Meadow in Manchester is now an up and coming area. If you were to look at it today you likely would not see the abject poverty that existed there during the Victorian era. Capturing this changing image of an area is important. There are several ways that I like to go about doing this:
1. Ordinance Surveys or other maps
This might sound like an odd choice, but maps can tell us a lot about a community. Look for what services are available. Is there a workhouse nearby? How cut off is the neighbourhood by the railways? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then the odds are that the neighbourhood was poor. Workhouses were often located in or near the communities that needed them the most. If you were to think of this in today's terms, urban planners often place homeless shelters and food banks closest to where the need exists. In the case of the municipal infrastructure, the following quote by Keith Bailey perfectly sums up how slums were created during the Victorian era:
“the
worse elements have for the most part taken refuge in blocks of houses isolated
by blank walls or railway embankments, or untraversed by any thoroughfare”.
A prime example of this is a section of Battersea that became more or less surrounded when the West London Extension Railway was constructed. Upon its completion, the neighbourhood's social class began to decline. In the below section of Booth's Poverty Maps we can see that the areas which have became more cut off by the railway are identified as being of a lower social standing (blue or black). Areas that met the classification of 'slum' may have been cleared during the slum clearances which aimed to improve living conditions. In the wake of the clearances, some streets were renamed whereas others were completely removed.
2. Census records
Each time a country releases a census they make slight changes to the information that they are collecting. In more recently available census records it is common to find information about the house. For example, the 1911 England census asked for the number of rooms in the house. In the 1921 Canadian census even more detail is provided. Enumerators were required to indicate the number of rooms, if the family owned the or rented the house, the rent (if applicable), and what material the house was constructed of. Simply understanding the number of rooms that the family was living in can tell you a lot about their economic situation. For example, prior to arriving in Canada my great grandmother was one of 11 people living in a 4 room house! The home contained two different families, meaning that each family was likely only living in 2 rooms! Understanding that piece of information allowed me to not only appreciate what her family went through when they were living in England, but also why they chose to immigrate.
3. Medical Officer of Health Reports
The Medical Officer of Health Reports began being produced out of the desire to improve public sanitation and living conditions. The Medical Officer would investigate complaints within their jurisdiction, then they would determine what needed to be done and if a fine should be issued. For example, I found one of my
ancestor's living in a house that was
condemned. The whole street lacked access to running water, had defective yard paving that had backed up with sewage, and the insides of the houses were damp, dirty, and broken. A year later the homes were said to have fallen down due to their poor construction. If it wasn't for this report I would not have been able to understand just how poor their living conditions were and why they moved.
Almost everybody has at least one ancestor that made the paper. As much as the personalized article can tell us quite a bit about an ancestors character, learning where they lived can be equally valuable. What I like to do is search for their street or one of the neighbouring streets to see if there was an outbreak of disease or frequent criminal activity. In poor and overcrowded neighbourhoods it was common for an outbreak to kill large numbers of people living within a small area. Be advised that economic conditions can change quite rapidly depending on if you are researching a main street or a small offshoot. The courts and narrow streets that extended off of main thoroughfares tended to me significantly poorer. If choosing to proceed with this technique I would recommend consulting a map while you research.
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